Improving Succession Management Practices
Posted by Alexandra Earnley on Wed, Jun 29, 2011 @ 08:07 AM
Having a well-trained workforce, with identified successors and individual career paths, is a critical component of a company's future growth, its ability to compete, and its impact on employee retention and morale. Succession Management ensures organizations have trained and capable employees who can move into new roles as your business changes. NuView offers managers a solution that can quickly and easily find answers to questions regarding succession with capabilities such as automatically generating employee career paths. Though NuView’s software is beneficial for streamlining such tasks, it is also critical for managers to have knowledge of what the actual methods of succession entail.
According to Robert J. Grossman, contributing editor of HR Magazine, there are seven ways to improve succession planning in your organization which he discusses in his June article, “Rough Road to Succession.” The first concept Grossman suggests focusing on is strategy and future business needs. Where do you want to be five years from now? Will the way your employees are trained need to be different in order to achieve these goals? NuView has a way to help managers with this task. Managers define a career path for each employee, which includes short and long term positions, estimated readiness dates, and skill requirements needed with the Succession Management module. It is also very important to evaluate whether or not your company is meeting current needs, has sufficient resources, and the right people to get the job done.
The second way to improve succession that Grossman proposes is to identify the most essential jobs in your company. But beware, that what is of utmost importance is not always obvious and criteria should be determined for making these decisions. NuView’s Succession Management module can develop the criteria by helping managers identify, prepare and develop future leaders as well as define backup candidates for key positions within the organization. NuView can aid your company in making complex and stressful decisions much more simplistic.
Next, Grossman suggests implementing objective assessments and flexible development processes. “Look at each person individually and identify development needs. Fit them into jobs or assign what will help them grow,” Grossman says. It is important to always remember that critical learning and building for the future takes place with experience. Under the NuView system, managers have access to a lot of key information including the organizational chart. This chart helps in the process of identifying backup candidates for various positions. It is also a major asset in the creation of employee development plans. Grossman recommends putting employees with a lot of potential in to pools instead of targeting them for one job. “Talent in the pool is viewed as a companywide resource and can be moved wherever and whenever necessary as people move along the pipeline,” Grossman added.
The fourth strategy for managers is to encourage support and guidance from top executives. This form of mentoring can be a huge motivator for development and this invaluable training is something your employees cannot get from software. This is where good management truly comes in to play. Grossman also pleads the importance of making the business case as his fifth proposition. HR managers must understand that a fundamental responsibility of their role is to provide reasons as to why succession management is important and to consistently showcase its best practices.
The sixth method of improvement is to minimize risk. It seems kind of obvious that companies should have a pipeline of talent, but Grossman sees some fault in the fact that many companies promote insiders to a position rather than hiring an external candidate, simply to minimize risk. Experts agree that recruiting outsiders at lowers levels and developing them involves less risk than starting them out on top because everyone needs to learn what it is like to be at the bottom before they are ready to be at the helm. Finally, Grossman warns to keep an eye on the external environment. Though executives should be constantly developing the talent they have it is also very important to patrol the marketplace.
For more information on how NuView's Succession Management module can improve your workforce, click here.